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The Man in the High Castle

The entertainment industry often uses propaganda to communicate the objectives behind the productions created and media crafted to interest and hold the attention of its intended audience. Amazon Studios is one entertainment company that artistically created a dystopian television show that centers on an alternative outcome to one of history’s well-known world wars. The Man in the High Castle (2015)is an alternative history television series thriller, based on the adaptation of a Philip K. Dick 1962 novel, which tells the setting of the world in which the Axis powers won World War II.

Amazon promoted the show by utilizing propaganda techniques for its advertising campaign. Specifically, posters were used in the form of propaganda to draw in its audience through Nazi-inspired imagery. It depicts the ideal family under Nazi rule in the post-WWII dystopia. The poster was distributed in 2015 to promote the first season of The Man in the High Castle in order to draw in viewers and also explain the show’s premise. It exemplifies how the studio used propaganda to promote the show’s storyline to reach audience members who can empathize with America’s historical enemies but can also relate to the hyper-American elements the show represents as well. The intended audience also includes winning over the hearts and minds of those drawn in by the humanization of Nazi leaders.

The poster’s image depicts the nuclear family consisting of the male breadwinner, female homemaker, their children and the addition of a golden retriever. The “Aryan” family poses behind a suburb consisting of the American stereotypical white picket fenced houses and Chevrolet cars, with a stylized Nazi flag flying in the background. The element of alternative history is added to the portrait as Nazi symbols are used to show the ideal, well behaved family under Nazi rule. The Nazi symbols used in various parts of the poster hold some nationalistic qualities in how they are used. This mirrors how America uses its national flag to promote and encourage patriotism. The poster shows post-WWII America peeking through the Nazi trappings as people become both politicized and radicalized under Nazi rule.

The historical content used is drawn from WWII, altering the outcome of the war if America had lost and Nazi Germany and Japan had prevailed. Amazon’s promotion of the series utilized Nazi ideology to portray through American values and characteristics to create a relation between the propagandist’s objective and its viewers through the use of advertisement. The theme of the show fits into the larger trend of fascist propaganda by using a political ideology to communicate and influence with an audience. The poster uses several characteristics of fascism such as nationalism to create a sense of national consciousness. The Nazi national culture is seen through the unified family force in the poster that effectively illiterates Nazi ideology. However, the poster also fits into the larger theme of pro-totalitarian propaganda. Similar to the entertainment industry, totalitarian societies inundate the pubic with a steady stream of propaganda accompanied with mindless entertainment. Amazon utilizes the fascist, totalitarian state of Nazi Germany and its national culture for the foundation for the show’s promotion and as the basis for the show.